Men's Soccer

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Santa Clara University and host San Jose State played to a 1-1 draw Thursday night at Spartan Stadium. The visiting Broncos had the benefit of a man-advantage for over 65 minutes after a Spartan red card late in the first half, but the game remained even the rest of the way.

Santa Clara (4-1-2) - ranked No. 25 nationally by College Soccer News - was hoping to extend its win-streak to four heading into Sunday's match with Harvard. However, the Bronco offense, which was ranked among the best nationally, could not capitalize despite playing a man up.

"Spartan Stadium is a difficult place to play," said Santa Clara head coach Cameron Rast. "It's a turf field, which is not that conducive to being a good soccer field. But give (SJSU) credit, we knew that it was going to be a good battle. I was actually very proud of (our) guys after going down a goal, gathering themselves and pulling one back."

SJSU (3-1-2) scored first on an outstanding individual effort from Nick Cashmere, who dribbled behind the SCU defense to net his third goal of the year. The Spartans are now 2-1-1 at home.

Trailing after Cashmere's early score, SCU sophomore Phillip Muscarella netted the game's tying goal in the 32nd minute thanks to an assist from junior teammate Erik Hurtado. It was Muscarella's second goal of the season.

It looked like the Broncos were positioned for the win after a second yellow card and subsequent red card was issued to SJSU's Edwin Velazquez moments before halftime.

"We had enough chances to win this game, and that is the disappointing part," said Rast. "It was not the effort, the effort was great, but we could have done some smarter things at times. But we put ourselves in a position to win. San Jose did a good job defending us."

The Broncos played Thursday night's match without team-leader Brandon Zimmerman (card accumulation), another top midfielder, David Castellanos, and All-WCC forward Eric Masch, who were among other players out with injury. Santa Clara hopes to be back to full strength Sunday when the team hosts perennial NCAA tournament qualifier Harvard at 2:30 p.m.